6.22.2007

RECIPE: Jamaican Jerk Pizza

As our blog description states, we're the Willards...and we love to make pizza. I go in spurts of making it once a week and then we'll take a break for a month or so.
And tonight, it was back to pizza!
Casey's all time favorite pizza is CPK's Jamaican Jerk Pizza (which is funny, since it's very non-traditional). For me, I like a good red sauce and cheese with veggies and ham.
So Casey's been asking me to try making a jerk pizza, like the CPK recipe. So I got a jerk chicken recipe from my new favorite cooking show, Guy's Big Bite (very entertaining. He's unorthadox, tatooed, and from Venice CA. Oddly enough, Casey enjoys watching it too). I fiddled with it a little, created a pizza, and the result was great! In fact, Casey's exact words when eating his first slice were: "There are some really memorable dinner nights in our house and this is one of them. This is restaurant quality." Why....thanks!
I only share his praise with you, because if you like CPK Jamaican Jerk Pizza too...then I'm sharing my recipe with you! I hope you think it tastes like the real deal.
I know it looks detailed, but it's not hard. I have not included my pizza dough recipe (since this is long enough). If you'd like that too, post a comment and I'll email it to you.
Here you go:

Jamaican Jerk Pizza
Makes one large 16 inch pizza

• Pizza dough (homemade or frozen)
• Sweet Caribbean Sauce (I haven’t created a recipe for this yet, but I found some great stuff at Trader Joe’s called: Mandarin Orange Chef Sauce. It’s by the marinades and sauces, comes in an 8oz jar for $1.99)
• Jerk Chicken (see recipe below)
• 1 red pepper sliced or diced
• 10-12 slices of bacon cooked and broken into small pieces
• Mozarella cheese

Jerk Chicken:
1 ½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 ½ tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp dried thyme
½ of a red onion, roughly chopped in quarters
2 Tbl oil (Olive or Canola)
½ cup orange juice
2 Tbl soy sauce
Juice of 1 lime
½ a Scotch bonnet pepper (or you can use 1 habanero pepper, chopped with seeds)
1 Tbl fresh ginger peeled and slightly chopped
pinch of salt and pepper
3-4 boneless chicken breasts, cut into small ½ inch pieces

In a food processor, combine all ingredients except the chicken. Puree until smooth. Pour chicken pieces and enough marinade to cover into a zip-lock bag. Seal the bag and squish it around so all the pieces are covered in marinade. Let marinate in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours. (Save any extra unused sauce for another time – store in the freezer)

When done marinating, heat a little oil in fry pan and pour entire chicken mixture in. Cook until chicken is no longer pink (about 5-7 minutes).

Start making your pizza! Form pizza dough into prepared pan. Spread Mandarin Orange Sauce (or any kind of Sweet Caribbean Sauce) over dough, as you would with pizza sauce. Cover with cheese. Top with Jerk Chicken pieces, red peppers, and bacon bits. Sprinkle with a little additional cheese to keep the bacon from drying out.

Cook at 350 for 15-18 minutes. Enjoy!

We made half and half (since I really wasn't sure how the Jerk side would turn out) You can see which side was more popular...

3 comments:

Zen Mama said...

That looks great, thanks for sharing!

We make pizza all the time chez nous. Paul served his mission in Italy, and I've discovered that homemade pizzas are not only good for the budget, but last several nights so I don't have to come up with a million menu items! ;-) I will definitely be trying your jerk chicken!

dana said...

Yes, I agree! It's much cheaper, more healthy, and the leftovers are yummy. If you have any pizza secrets, please share....

Darci said...

Homemade pizza is a weekly dinner in our home too! Our favorite is BBQ chicken. I'm excited to try your recipe.